Asked and Answered
by ShutUpAndPull
Summary: Mini-Fic # 9: What comes of it when Kate spies Rick playing with another one of his toys?


_**Asked and Answered**_

Standing unnoticed in the doorway to his office, Kate watched as Rick rapidly shook the small plastic ball for the fourth time since she'd arrived at the loft that evening, his face screaming frustration as he sneered at it with palpable disdain. "Seriously?" he scoffed, releasing his death grip and setting it firmly back down on the desk in disgust.

"Ahem," Kate let out, successfully grabbing his attention, albeit with a startle. "You seem upset, Castle. Want to talk about it?" She fought to suppress her grin, but the look on his dispirited face made that all but impossible.

"I…how long have you been standing there?" he said with a crack in his voice akin to that of a pubescent teenager.

"Long enough," she chuckled. "What the heck are you doing with that thing, anyway? Please tell me you aren't using it to make decisions for our character."

Her words landed mightily, eliciting a gratified smile. "Actually, no, I wasn't writing. I was paying bills." With his eyes fixated on hers, he pushed from his chair and moved around the desk towards her. "You know, Detective, when you refer to her as _our character,_ it makes me want to do things to your naked body. What do you say we-"

"Castle," Kate interjected, stopping his progress with a flat palm to the chest, "tell me what you asked it that had you so flustered." She watched as he glanced around the room nervously. "You know, I haven't picked one of those things up since I was eight, but I'm pretty sure it's just a toy."

Rick eyed her with marked chagrin. "Was that a passive-aggressive dig at my childlike whimsy, Beckett?" he said, taking a step back. "Like you don't love that about me," he carried on under his breath, triggering a roll of the eyes and a look he knew all too well. "Okay, fine," he conceded swiftly but with some measure of trepidation. There was no way he could lie to her. She knew him too well. She'd see right through him. "Are you sure you really want to know, though? I mean, those things are stupid and they don't work and Alexis left it here and I was bored…and those things are stupid," he blathered in hopeful avoidance.

"You already said that, Castle, and you're rambling. Come on, just tell me. I'm fascinated to know what someone like you would ask a Magic 8 Ball, you know, someone who already thinks they have the answers for everything," she teased.

Rick sighed in anticipatory embarrassment. "I asked it if I was the greatest mystery novelist in the history of mystery novelists," he mumbled hastily, just to get it over with, just to get the ridiculous words out.

Kate bit at the inside of her cheek and stepped to close the gap between them, her arms circling his waist and holding him tightly. "And, I guess you didn't get the response you were hoping for?"

"No," he answered with a pout. "I got two _don't count on it_ , an _ask again later_ and a _my sources say no_. I'd like to meet those sources in a dark alley right about now, if you know what I mean," he grumbled.

Kate pushed up onto her tiptoes and gave him a sympathetic kiss on the cheek. "Hey, it's just a piece of plastic. You said it yourself, those things are stupid and they don't work. I happen to think you're the greatest at a lot of things, Castle," she whispered flirtatiously, before unclasping her hands and moving towards his desk.

"What are you doing?" Rick asked, watching her reach for the forsaken black orb and shake it.

Kate's eyebrows drew upwards in apparent awe as she caught sight of the response revealed in its tiny window. "Well, I was going to try to make you feel better by proving your assertion about this thing being a piece of junk accurate, but, now, I don't know, Castle, I might be a believer."

"What?" Rick roared in disbelief. "You can't possibly be serious. You just said-"

"It speaks truths, Castle. I can't deny it." She stretched out her arm so he could see its _yes-definitely_ reply, and then she turned and began to walk away.

"Beckett" he called out, stopping her as she reached the threshold to the bedroom, "I don't…what did you ask it?"

Kate looked back over her shoulder at his most desperately curious face. "Oh, right, sorry, I asked it if Richard Castle was going to get lucky tonight," she answered with a wink.


End file.
